Orange Key guides on Admission’s payroll

Orange Key’s student tour guides have worked on a volunteer basis since the 1930s, but that changed with the start of the fall term: The organization’s 114 guides are now paid for leading visitors around campus.

“I thought a paid model would help improve tour attendance and quality,” said Orange Key chairwoman Sarah Van Cleve ’12. Students previously were paid for tours only during the summer and on fall and spring break. Van Cleve suggested the change to the Office of Admission, which has overseen Orange Key since 2006. 

“We view the tours to be of importance to the mission of the University, and we are now paying the guides for their work,” admission dean Janet Rapelye told The Daily Princetonian. The admission office also will pick Orange Key’s chair, Van Cleve said.

Will the sometimes-breezy content of tours be affected? Van Cleve says she ­doesn’t expect any “dramatic changes,” noting that students still will select and train the guides and edit the group’s training manual, Guide for Guides.